


What We Have

by TeaRoses



Category: Pokemon
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-24
Updated: 2010-02-24
Packaged: 2017-10-07 12:50:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/65317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeaRoses/pseuds/TeaRoses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Misty and Jessie meet up again, years after canon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What We Have

**Author's Note:**

> I had an odd reason for writing this. I read a fanfic out of curiosity about this pairing and it was really horrible (not just badfic, it gradually became totally bizarre). So though I hadn't written femslash before, I sat down to wipe that story out of my mind. I'm not sure how good mine is, and it the end it lacks real romance, but I feel a little better now.

Despite her years away, Misty still appreciated the gym more than her sisters did. It was a new place with her there. She was a tough opponent in gym battles and only gave out the Cascade badge to the deserving. Crowds still came to see water ballet, but the young trainers no longer laughed when they came to Cerulean.

She trained her own Pokemon and perfected their attacks and defenses not just for competition but for the joy of it. There was even time for a little research into breeding and theory.

But there were times she was thoughtful, and wondered what she was doing here and where she could go next. She liked to go down to the real sea at times like this, but it took too long to get to the nearest shoreline in Vermillion. She would settle for the library, where she could look out over the hill at a view of the city. If she had to she could close her eyes and pretend that the noise of the passing cars was really crashing waves.

She was there one summer afternoon, making the trainers wait at the gym, when she saw Jessie. Misty had known that the lower echelons of Team Rocket had disbanded long ago and Jessie was on her own. She had occasionally seen her at events such as the Johto League Championships, and they had even had a few awkward conversations. This time Jessie came up to her directly.

"Misty," she said abruptly, "I don't know if you're happy to see me, but I remember you from the last Princess festival. The one where we didn't actually try to claw each others eyes out. I was in Cerulean and I dropped by the gym, and your sisters told me you were here. But I know we're not really friends."

Misty shrugged. "It's not like it was, Jessie. You know I haven't been with Ash for years, and Team Rocket isn't even after him anymore."

Jessie nodded. "Pikachu was more a pet project of the three of us, I'm afraid. And a hopeless one." She sighed a little. "I would imagine that kid still hates us. Though I suppose he's not such a kid anymore."

Jessie had never said anything directly about the past before. Misty couldn't help laughing. "You were really more of a pain in the ass than a threat."

Jessie looked back at her. "You've developed even more of a mouth, haven't you? But I suppose I did make a couple of tries at your Togepi, though that was mostly because Meowth loved the damn squeaky thing."

"He's a damn squeaky Togetic now; but he lives with Brock on a Pokemon ranch. He's happier there, Togetic are hard to fight with and I need the water types here.

Jessie nodded. "Must not a bad life, except for those dimwits with the flower names."

Misty glared for a moment, then softened her expression slightly, realizing that there was no point in arguing with Jessie after all these years. "They are ditzy, but they're my sisters. You put up with family, and you don't let people insult them, you know?"

Jessie stiffened. "No, I don't know. I never had any family."

Misty reaches for her shoulder then. "I honestly didn't know that."

The older woman looked at her. "I don't talk about it. My mother was a Rocket agent who left me as a baby for a secret project in the Andes Mountains. Much later I found out she died, though I never got straight answers on that."

Misty felt honestly sad for her now, and not for the first time.

"So you were raised to be a Rocket agent?"

Jessie shrugged. "No, it was more complicated than that. But I didn't have an easy life like you, born into a gym."

Misty looked into her companion's blue eyes just for a moment. She had considered the differences between them often, but never quite like this. But she knew Jessie was proud, and wouldn't want pity, especially from someone she had once held in such contempt.

"I can't say I have a hard life but I had hoped I wouldn't still be here by now."

"What do you mean? This gym is too small for you?" asked Jessie.

"I never wanted to be a gym leader my whole life."

"What else did any of you brats… I mean trainers… really want?"

"I wasn't like Brock and Ash," insisted Misty. "Or the rest of the trainers you may have stolen from… met. I've always thought about more than Pokemon. Go ahead and laugh, but I wanted to be a doctor."

Jessie was the one whose face had softened now. "Ah, I wanted to be a nurse, myself. Tried to go to school for it, but none of them would take me. In the end there was only the Chansey school and that was just another place I didn't belong."

Misty nodded, suddenly unable to look Jessie in the eye anymore. "I was about to say I can't picture you as a nurse but I imagine you can't picture me as a doctor either."

"I can't say I ever tried to picture that. But at least you have a chance. With my record, I'm stuck scrounging after cheap jobs wherever I can. I always thought there would be James at least, but when his psycho fiancée finally married someone else he went back to his parents. That threw me for a loop…" She stopped. "But I doubt you care."

Misty reached out and put an arm around Jessie for a moment. "I didn't know any of this. But while I doubt you care either, I'm never going to get out of this place. My sisters let the gym go to hell while I was gone. I told myself I deserved a Pokemon journey like everyone else, and maybe I did, but I'm not a kid anymore. I can't just march off to medical school, if I could get in, and pretend it's all right for the Cascade badge to be a meaningless piece of tin again."

Jessie laughed for a moment. "Look at us, sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves. You're one of the most respected water Pokemon trainers in Kanto. And as for me, well, I'm alive and well and at least I've still got my looks."

Misty considered that for a moment. "You do, really. You were the only woman beautiful enough to scare Brock. And now you don't have to wear that outfit."

Jessie looked down at her miniskirt. "I still show it off a bit, but I get to exercise my taste more. And you've improved yourself."

"I thought you were about to tell me I never had any looks in the first place."

"Would I say a thing like that?" Jessie was heavily sarcastic again. "At least you got rid of those damn suspenders, and let your hair down. But I see you still favor crop tops."

The older woman reached her hand out then and touched Misty's stomach playfully. Her hand settled on Misty's waist and lingered just a moment. Jessie drew closer to her and Misty closed her eyes for a moment, but then backed away with a slight inner pang.

Jessie turned her face away and looked down the hill. "I didn't mean to…" she began in a bitter tone.

"Don't say it. It's all right." Misty said.

Her sadness was evident in her voice and Jessie turned to her and said, "I'll go, now. You take care of yourself."

Misty couldn't think of anything to say. There might someday be a time when she could be with someone like this, could properly appreciate a proud woman with fierce affections. But now she was still struggling to keep herself together, and she couldn't take chances on anything.

Finally she just said, "It's me, not you," and when Jessie nodded Misty hoped she understood her full meaning. She leaned over and kissed her carefully on the mouth, and watched as the other woman nodded again and walked away.

Misty stood for a moment looking down the hill. She looked at the street and thought for a moment of an ocean, with leaping Pokemon and ships leaving on journeys. Then she walked away herself, back to the gym.

**Author's Note:**

> Note to those who may not be huge Pokemon fans: I didn't make up any of Jessie's backstory; that's all canon. And Misty did mention once possibly wanting to be a doctor, and often mentioned not wanting to be a Pokemon trainer forever.


End file.
